West Ham are placing their survival hopes in the hands of an undertaker

Moyes, right, and Bilic go head to head in April. As with the Croat, the Sunderland manager’s brand of football became increasingly raggedBPI/REX/Shutterstock

At Roy Keane’s first press conference as Sunderland manager, he deployed the death stare. There had been a snort in the room — incautious, half-suppressed — when one of the club’s Irish owners talked about qualifying for the Champions League. It was fanciful; the team were flailing near the foot of English football’s second tier, much as they are now, but Keane was furious at the lack of respect.

The former captain of Manchester United trained his lasers and the laughter stopped. At the end of that season, when Sunderland had been promoted to the Premier League as champions, Keane rejected the offer of an open-top bus parade, a civic reception. He did not even want his picture taken with a trophy which represented failure…

Want to read more?

Subscribe now and get unlimited digital access on web and our smartphone and tablet apps, free for your first month.